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Class of ’87
| After suffering for 30 years from
what doctors repeatedly identified
as a cardiac disease of unknown
origin, Robert Phillips developed
heart failure severe enough to bring
him to the verge of a heart
transplant. Fortunately, the
procedure was not needed.
Phillips was diagnosed and treated
for advanced Lyme disease—one of the
fastest spreading epidemics in the
world, and one of the most
debilitating. Since his treatment a
decade ago, Phillips has enjoyed the
benefits of normal cardiac function.
If
Lyme is detected and treated
properly at the onset of infection,
there are usually no long-term
medical repercussions. Left
untreated or under-treated, however,
it becomes an insidious illness,
often inducing a myriad of acute and
chronic neurological,
musculoskeletal, rheumatologic,
cardiac, and neuropsychiatric
symptoms. Lyme has been identified
in medical journals as a probable
cause of multiple sclerosis,
rheumatoid arthritis, lupus,
fibromyalgia, Alzheimer’s, and Lou
Gehrig’s disease, to name a few.
For
saving his life (and making it worth
living again), Phillips can thank
Dr. Steven Phillips W’87—his son,
who happens to be a leader in the
fight against Lyme and other
tick-borne diseases. After
graduating from Wharton in 1987, the
younger Phillips was preparing to
enter the business world when a
friend who had recently finished
medical school dared him to pursue a
career in medicine.
That
dare would end up saving—and
improving—a lot of lives. Phillips
has focused his efforts on combating
Lyme ever since he began his
residency at the Yale University
School of Medicine in 1993.
“I
knew a lot of people with Lyme from
home,” the
New York state
native says. “Lyme has its fingers
in so many disease states of
‘unknown etiology.’ Even if [it]
contributes to only a small percent,
the implications are staggering.”
A
significant percentage of the
medical community still resists
accepting Lyme and related
tick-borne diseases as such severe
threats. “Medical dogma changes
slowly, over decades,” says
Phillips, who remains confident that
his work will ultimately enlighten
his colleagues.
In
1996, he stepped away from his
research on the microbiology and
immunology of
B.
Burgdorferi (the Lyme
bacteria) and established a private
practice. Today, operating from his
cozy clapboard base camp in
Wilton,
Connecticut, Phillips wears a
casual button-down shirt and blue
jeans. The perpetually ringing
telephones and fax machines are
manned by three women—one of them
his mother, Gladys. Despite his
laidback demeanor and arid sense of
humor, Phillips has a reputation for
caring intensely for each patient.
By the
time they arrive at his door, most
of his patients have already sought
the aid of other doctors in every
medical field. Phillips is not
committed to commonplace Lyme
protocol, and he does whatever it
takes to alleviate his patients’
suffering and improve the quality of
their lives. As a result, he’s in
high demand.
“There’s a wait of a few months, two
to six depending on the time of the
year,” he says. His patients come
from all 50 states and many Western
European countries.
Lyme
patients are not the only people
seeking his expertise. Network
television and syndicated radio
programs have sought his commentary.
The governments of
Connecticut,
Rhode Island, and New
York—all in the epicenter of
tick-borne diseases—have invited him
to provide testimony. His
presentations have prompted
legislation to fight Lyme and
increase education efforts.
In his
critique of “Lyme Disease Testing” (Lancet
Infectious Disease, March
2006), Phillips makes clear that
Lyme disease is taking on epidemic
proportions because of the
nonexistent efforts to improve an
atrocious testing and reporting
system—and he implicates government
agencies, like the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
Having
served as president of the
International Lyme and Associated
Diseases Society (ILADS), Phillips
is now a member of the professional
advisory board for the Turn The
Corner Foundation—a group more
focused on funding research and
treatments.
With
the lay population still mostly
ignorant about Lyme, Phillips wishes
he could go on a speaking tour, in
order to “educate so patients may
have more access to medical care,”
on a broader scale. In the meantime,
he enjoys being a jock in his spare
time. As a former instructor, the
doctor has a particular soft spot
for tennis, but there are other games he enjoys, too:
“Any
sports that don’t involve tick
exposure.”
—Eric Karlan C’09
Original Article:
http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/0907/pro04.html
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